This invention relates in general to vehicle wheels and in particular to an improved method and apparatus for producing a vehicle wheel.
A conventional vehicle wheel is typically of a two-piece construction and includes an inner wheel disc and an outer xe2x80x9cfullxe2x80x9d wheel rim. The wheel disc can be cast, forged, or fabricated from steel, aluminum, or other alloys, and includes an inner annular wheel mounting portion and an outer annular portion. The wheel mounting portion of the wheel disc defines an inboard mounting surface and includes a center pilot or hub hole, and a plurality of lug receiving holes formed therethrough for mounting the vehicle wheel to an axle of the vehicle. The wheel rim is fabricated from steel, aluminum, or other alloys, and includes an inboard tire bead seat retaining flange, an inboard tire bead seat, an axially extending well, an outboard tire bead seat, and an outboard tire bead seat retaining flange. In some instances, a three-piece wheel construction having a mounting cup secured to the wheel disc is used. In both types of constructions, the outer annular portion of the wheel disc is secured to the wheel rim by welding.
In the above vehicle wheel constructions, after the wheel disc and the wheel rim have been assembled and welded together several finishing operations may be required to produce a wheel having the desired specifications. First, at least one of the inboard and outboard tire bead seats and/or at least one of the inboard and outboard tire bead seat retaining flanges may have to be generally be processed so that the tire bead seats are oriented and located coaxial with the wheel axis (commonly referred to as xe2x80x9cradial runoutxe2x80x9d), and the tire bead seat retaining flanges are oriented in a parallel relationship relative to an inboard mounting surface of the wheel disc (commonly referred to as xe2x80x9clateralxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9caxialxe2x80x9d runoutxe2x80x9d). Following this, the location of center pilot hole, the lug receiving holes, or both may have to be corrected by an appropriate method, such as reboring the center pilot hole and repunching the lug receiving holes, so that an axis of the center pilot hole is oriented in a coaxial relationship relative to the wheel axis and the tire bead seats and the axes of the lug receiving holes are oriented parallel to the wheel axis.
FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate a typical prior art assembly tooling apparatus, indicated generally at 200, which is used to assemble a prior art wheel disc 220 and a prior art wheel rim 240 together to produce a vehicle wheel. The prior assembly tooling apparatus 200 includes a plurality tooling members which are moveable between an intermediate working position, shown in prior art FIG. 6, and a final working position, shown in prior art FIG. 7.
As shown in prior art FIGS. 6 and 7, the prior art assembly tooling apparatus 200 includes a wheel rim tooling station, indicated generally at 202, and a wheel disc tooling station, indicated generally at 204. The wheel rim tooling station 202 includes an upper wheel rim detail tooling member 206 and a lower wheel rim detail tooling member 208. The upper wheel rim detail tooling member 206 includes a pair of tooling members 206A and 206B which are connected together by a plurality of bolts 207 (only one of such bolts 207 is illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7). The tooling members 206A and 206B can be uninterrupted continuous annular tooling members which are effective to engage and support a generally radially extending inner surface 242A of an inboard tire bead seat retaining flange 242 of the wheel rim 240 around the entire periphery thereof, or can be a segmented tooling member (i.e., not an uninterrupted continuous tooling member), so as not to provide full (i.e., 360 degree) contact and support at the associated surface.
The lower wheel rim detail tooling member 208 includes a pair of tooling members 208A and 208B which are connected together by a plurality of bolts 209 (only one of such bolts 209 is illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7). The tooling members 208A and 208B can be uninterrupted continuous annular tooling members which are effective to engage and support a generally radially outwardly extending inner surface 246A of a section of a well 246 of the wheel rim 240 around the entire periphery thereof, or can be a segmented tooling member (i.e., not an uninterrupted continuous tooling member), so as not to provide full (i.e., 360 degree) contact and support at the associated surface. In addition, the lower wheel rim detail tooling member 208 can include a locating member 211 which is adapted to extend through a valve stem opening 240A provided in the wheel rim 240. The lower wheel rim detail tooling member 208 is selectively moveable by a cylinder B1 which is actuated by suitable means, such as such as by hydraulic, pneumatic, or similar means.
The wheel disc tooling station 204 includes an outer retainer 212, an inner retainer 214, a center pilot plug 216, and a bottom center detail tooling member 218. The inner retainer 214 is operatively connected to the outer retainer 212 by one or more bolts 215 and is selectively moveable by a cylinder B2. The center pilot plug 216 is operatively connected to the inner retainer 214 by a bolt 219 and moveable therewith, and the bottom center detail tooling member 218 is selectively moveable by a cylinder B3. The cylinders B2, and B3 are actuated by suitable means, such as by hydraulic, pneumatic, or similar means.
The outer retainer 212 is preferably an uninterrupted continuous annular member which is effective to engage and support an inner surface 224A of an outer annular portion 224 of the wheel disc 220 around the entire periphery thereof, or can be a segmented tooling member (i.e., not an uninterrupted continuous tooling member), so as not to provide full (i.e., 360 degree) contact and support at the associated surface. The inner retainer 214 includes a plurality of separate tooling members (four of such tooling members 214A-214D being illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7), which are operatively connected together by suitable means, such as for example by bolts 217A-217C. The tooling member 214D is preferably an uninterrupted continuous annular tooling member which is effective to engage and support an inboard mounting surface 222A of a wheel mounting portion 222 of the wheel disc 220 around the entire periphery thereof. The center pilot plug 216 defines an outer diameter which is slightly less than an inner diameter defined by the center pilot hole 228 of the wheel disc 220 so as to be received therein in a slight interference fit therewith.
The bottom center detail tooling member 218 includes a plurality of separate tooling members 218A-218C which are connected together by bolts 219A and 219B and which are operatively connected to the cylinder B3. The tooling member 218B includes an outer annular extension 224 which is effective to engage an outer surface 222B of the wheel disc 220 adjacent the bolt hole openings 230 except at the embossed surface areas of the bolt hole openings 230 or any other non-uniform surface area located thereon. The tooling member 218B further includes a locating member 221 which is adapted to extend through one of the bolt hole openings 230 provided in the wheel disc 220.
The prior art assembly tooling apparatus 200 shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 is operated in the following manner to assemble the wheel disc 220 and the wheel rim 240 together. First, the wheel rim 240 and the wheel disc 220 are supported by the assembly tooling apparatus 200 as shown in FIG. 6. In particular, the wheel rim 240 is engaged and supported at the surface 246A by the tooling member 208A, and the wheel disc 220 is engaged and supported at the surfaces 224A, 222A, 222B, 228, and 230 by the tooling members 212, 214D, 218B, 216, and 221 respectively. Next, with the wheel disc 220 held stationary by the tooling members 212, 214, 216, 218, and 221, and the wheel rim 240 supported by the tooling member 208A, the wheel rim 240 is moved upwardly relative to the wheel disc 220 in the direction of the arrow N (shown in FIG. 6) a predetermined distance from the position shown in FIG. 6 to the position shown in FIG. 7 so as to xe2x80x9cpress inxe2x80x9d the wheel rim 240 and assemble the wheel rim 240 and the wheel disc 220 together in a press-fit relationship. In particular, the wheel rim 240 and the wheel disc 220 are assembled together so as to precisely locate the inboard mounting surface 222A of the wheel disc 220 a predetermined lateral distance K relative to the inner surface 242A of the inboard tire bead seat retaining flange 242 of the wheel rim 220. As can be seen in FIG. 7, when the wheel rim 240 is pressed into the wheel disc 220 so as to provide the predetermined lateral runout distance K, the inner surface 242A of an inboard tire bead seat retaining flange 242 of the wheel rim 240 is engaged by the tooling member 206A of the upper wheel rim detail tooling member 206. Following this, the assembled wheel disc 220 and wheel rim 240 are permanently joined together by a weld (not shown) in a known manner.
This invention relates to an improved method and apparatus for producing a vehicle wheel. The method for assembling a wheel rim and a wheel disc together to produce the vehicle wheel includes the steps of: (a) providing a wheel rim defining an axis and including an inboard tire bead seat retaining flange, an inboard tire bead seat, a well portion, an outboard tire bead seat, and an outboard tire bead seat retaining flange, the inboard tire bead seat retaining flange including a generally radially extending first inner surface, the well portion including a generally radially extending second inner surface, the outboard tire bead seat retaining flange including a generally radially extending third inner surface; (b) providing a wheel disc having a generally centrally located inner wheel mounting portion and an outer annular portion which terminates in a generally axially extending outer annular flange, the inner wheel mounting portion including an inboard mounting surface and an outboard mounting surface, the outer annular portion including an inner surface; (c) supporting the wheel rim at the first inner and at least one of the second inner surface and the third inner surface; (d) supporting the wheel disc at the inboard mounting surface and the outboard mounting surface of the inner wheel mounting portion; (e) selectively moving at least one of the wheel rim and the wheel disc toward one another to cause the outer annular flange of the wheel disc to engage an inner surface of the wheel rim in a press fit engagement therewith while supporting the wheel rim and the wheel disc as recited in steps (c) and (d), the wheel rim and the wheel disc being selectively moved to produce a desired lateral runout dimension defined between the inboard mounting surface of the wheel disc and the first inner surface of the inboard tire bead seat retaining flange of the wheel rim; and (f) subsequent to step (e), welding the wheel disc to the wheel rim to thereby permanently join the wheel rim and the wheel disc together and produce the vehicle wheel.
Other advantages of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, when read in light of the accompanying drawings.